Thanks for the link Rab. My Grandfather died in there in 1964, so it is of immense interest to me & my newly found relatives.

Just as a matter of interest; on my Grandfather's death certificate they didn't actually put on there that it was a hospital, they just put an address. It was only when i joined GG last October that i found out it was a hospital.....up until then i'd thought it was a house.

Many thanks again Rab....it's people like you that help novices like me greatly with our research.

As a young pupil nurse back in 1979 aged 17, Foresthall was the first hospital I worked in, being seconded from Stobhill. I was there for two months and remember well how terrified I was the first day, of this large imposing building. On a back shift, well my imagination would run away with me as I walked down for the bus, I always thought the building was creepy.

I worked in what was called back then 'the psycho geriatric' female ward. Even then the stigma of Barnhill lived on and some of the ladies used to comment on how upset they were to be ending their days in 'the poorhoose'.

Foresthall! I was one of the homeless kids there in the very late '60s/early '70s. It was a horrible place, scary after dark and with constant sectarian fighting among the kids.

I remember playing around the mortuary building, playing in the coal pile and I remember a bunch of kids having their stomachs pumped for eating the berrys because they missed dinner.

I remember some of the buildings were in a sad state of disrepair. We'd play in the abandoned ones and one little boy almost lost a leg sliding down a banister that had broken glass embedded in it.

There was one guy who seemed nice enough, but I think he was a social worker. The other staff seemed to take great pleasure in shouting orders and smacking the kids around whenever our mothers weren't looking.

We left Foresthall and moved into a basement flat in Oatlands, then to the top floor of a tenement in Parkhead. I think I was the only Proddy who could see into Celtic park from my house.

We moved to Barlanark in the mid '70s and had indoor toilets again, but I still shudder when I think of Foresthall.

hi there i am looking for information on a Jeannie scott who is my mum's mother and stay at 657 edgefauld road glasgow and Jeannie scott work as a domestic servant and was born in 1926 and all i know is that she could have been in the barnhill poorhouse then foresthall and i would be grateful if anyone had any information and reall would be grateful if anyone had pictures of my mum's mum and i would be grateful and thanks and wait to her from anyone who has any info and any pictures and if jeannie scott is still living she would be 86 years of age and thank u

hi there i am looking for information on a Jeannie scott who is my mum's mother and stay at 657 edgefauld road glasgow and Jeannie scott work as a domestic servant and was born in 1926 and all i know is that she could have been in the barnhill poorhouse then foresthall and i would be grateful if anyone had any information and reall would be grateful if anyone had pictures of my mum's mum and i would be grateful and thanks and wait to her from anyone who has any info and any pictures and if jeannie scott is still living she would be 86 years of age and thank u

Hi..There's tons of info on threads such as Barnhill..Foresthall...Workhouses...may take a wee bit of going back through the threads concerned on this site......There is a great site for finding people from the past ...Scotlands People..if you have to dig in deep,it may cost you a few bucks...we traced our Family back to the late 1600's and the other side back to the 1700's incuding marriage certificates.....Good Luck.

Thanks for the link Rab. My Grandfather died in there in 1964, so it is of immense interest to me & my newly found relatives.

Just as a matter of interest; on my Grandfather's death certificate they didn't actually put on there that it was a hospital, they just put an address. It was only when i joined GG last October that i found out it was a hospital.....up until then i'd thought it was a house.

Many thanks again Rab....it's people like you that help novices like me greatly with our research.

hi this is chippy jim barber at foresthall 1964 to 67 i worked in all the male wards at that time must have cut ur g dads hair or shaved him used too play draughts up in the dermo ward had good times withpatients and staff in all wards chippyjim

Im the "guest" whose Dad was a Doctor there from the 70's to the 80's. I thought I should register because for anyone that interested I had some more stuff to add that I remember from days gone by.

G Block was the ward for dementia patients who had left us in mind so to speak. The rest of the blocks save the outer ones which were M and N block were for geriatric patients who had health issues at that point in time. M and N blocks were at the back of the hospital towards the huge wall facing the Red Road flats. I remember they also taught folk how to walk again the best they could after a stroke or a fall in M and N blocks. My Dad spent alot of time there and actually looked after his own Mother in M blovk when she passed away fro heart failure at 91.

He met my Mom in the hospital too. My Mom was from Renfrew originally but had went to Pediani's school of hairdressing in Springburn Road and had gotten a job at the Hospital doing the old folks hair. They dated for a while and then married.

The more I think about the place the more I realize now that in when I was playing in the place while he worked the hospital was on the decline. It had large sections of it closed off and un-used when I was there. The things inside it, like the bowling greens and tennis courts put there in the 20's I think, were largely unkept and overgrown. It did have huge fancy gardens though and a few big big greenhouses. I think the idea was that in the poorhouse when they did have a homeless unit, that they could grow some of their own food to eat. Least thats what I think I remember.

In early years there was a homeless unit in the hospital still. This would be in the mid 70's but it soon closed. I used to get a skelp from my Dad if I got caught "hingin aboot" with the homeless kids. I remember getting caught behind the mortuary building watching while three of them were sniffing evostik glue. I got leathered for that one.

The other thing I loved about the place was the constantly burning midden they had in the grounds. AS an 7 year old kid this thing was pure magic for me to play in but I got manys the skelping for coming into the ward in the middle of a ward round stinkin of midden and smoke. I still love the nurses who would cluck and tsk and take me off to wash up. I often wonder what happened to most of them. Some of them would "ask the Doctor" if they could take the wean (me) to the shop. It had a wee sweetie shop up a corridor somewhere that you could buy a quarter of soor plooms midget gems, strawberry bon bons or strawberry sherbets and the like. Hows that for a blast from the past?

As I got older, it was the perfect place to learn to drive. The hospital had no traffic in the extensive wee roads in it at night because by this time it had become a social work place with only a few wards left which Dad oversaw. I could get in my Mums wee Datsun car and stall and bump the car round the place myself learning to work the clutch and the like.

When it closed my Dad still had 5 odd years left to retire, so they sent him to Possil Park Health center where he helped stroke patients walk again working with the physio's He retired and lasted another 8 or 9 years before he had a massive heart attack in 1999 and passed away.

As I said before, my sister works in Stobhill now and The Southern General, she is some kind of operating room nurse.

Me?

I live in Washington DC and am a Fire Fighter.

I miss fish suppers like you wouldnt believe.

I was one of the homeless kids in Forest Hall in Nov1973 to Feb 1974 ...I remember the place well and i love your post of your memories......I remember going to school i dont know if just off the grounds or what, but the kids would not play with my brother and i because we were from Forest Hall....crazy.....The place was hugh we were in a small room with 2 beds, a table and chairs .... only there a cpl months but the memory is there......Thanks for the info

Foresthall! I was one of the homeless kids there in the very late '60s/early '70s. It was a horrible place, scary after dark and with constant sectarian fighting among the kids.

I remember playing around the mortuary building, playing in the coal pile and I remember a bunch of kids having their stomachs pumped for eating the berrys because they missed dinner.

I remember some of the buildings were in a sad state of disrepair. We'd play in the abandoned ones and one little boy almost lost a leg sliding down a banister that had broken glass embedded in it.

There was one guy who seemed nice enough, but I think he was a social worker. The other staff seemed to take great pleasure in shouting orders and smacking the kids around whenever our mothers weren't looking.

We left Foresthall and moved into a basement flat in Oatlands, then to the top floor of a tenement in Parkhead. I think I was the only Proddy who could see into Celtic park from my house.

We moved to Barlanark in the mid '70s and had indoor toilets again, but I still shudder when I think of Foresthall.

Hi Ian and all who are interested...I was one of the children who lived in foresthall in late 69 and into early 1970 and I was also one of the children who had their stomachs pumped due to the berry eating incident my name back then was John Logue and in march 1970 my mother managed to secure a nice 3 bedroomed house (in Blackhill) for herself and her six children and my youngest sister who was born in may that year sad thing is we were put into there because my father had been sent to prison for not paying rents or whatever and my mother and I think four of us children were sent there and my other two siblings went to live with relatives until she had secured the new house just as sadly she was silly enough to take my father back when he was released from prison and we had 7 and a half years living in one of the worst areas of glasgow as it turned out...and when we moved from there to Priesthill it wasn't much better but thankfully we that is all the children have much better lives as adults now not that we are richer or better off particularly just that we are better people than our parents were and we now tell these stories to our children and I imagine it horrifies them to hear things that only they can imagine...on a lighter note I also remember an elderly lady who we all sang watzing matilda to as I am sure she was an old Australian who was as we would have put it (not politically correct by todays standards) but it would be doowally I suppose and we were very naive at the time and didn't think we were that bad I suppose looking back it carved our futures as young adults and now we all have our own children we do have something to say we will never do to our children...god bless you all who remember this place...and finally I do actually believe that if there were more time and money spent on this place those beautiful victorian buildings would be much better to look at than the horrible new properties that sit in it's place...

My mum Eleanor also spent a short time here in a family unit when they were homeless in the early 70s though she can't remember exactly when, she would have been aged roughly between 5 and 8. Her parents were David and Nancy and her younger sister was Lorraine. Depending on when they stayed there her other younger sister may have been there as a baby (she was born in 73) - wondering if anyone remembers her family or if anyone has photos of the inside of the place, Google results seem to be fairly limited!

I remember that some of my mother's family were employed in Forest Hall Hospital. Her brother, his wife, her sister and her husband and my sister's husband! So it was always part of the family talk but as I was young at the time I didn't really take in what kind of place it was. I know that when it closed down my mother's brother and his wife became manager and Matron of an old peoples home and her brother who worked in the pharmacy was transferred to another Glasgow Hospital. My brother in law also became manager of an old peoples home.

I worked in the homeless families unit in 1976... I was 21, and had to do different shifts. On the night shift we had to try to get some kip on 2 chairs pushed together in the staff room, after I had done some embroidery for hours. Huge high ceilings. We had virtually no training, and I found it knackering and depressing... Nothing for residents to do all day, no workshops, nothing. I remember sloshing out the porridge in the morning after a night shift. I got myself transferred to the under fives play room which was much more fun, and worked with some fabulous young women, wish I could remember their names! I remember we got the news that Elvis had died one morning, and everyone was crying.

Hi, I was born in the Barnhill poor house in 1947. My father was at sea and my mother went to live back with her parents. My grandfather James Maltman was at the time Governor of the facility.We emigrated to Canada in 1948 but often went back to visit with my grandparents.My mother grew up in Barnhill along with her 2 brothers and 1 sister.

I remember wee maggie who was only about 3 ft tall who was in charge of the tuck shop...the matrons and nurses were always glad to see us and encouraged us to sit and talk to the old folk.

I worked in Forest hall Hospital , yes their was also a home less unit within the hospital next to C-Block but the hospital side was a transfer unit from Stobhill for long term patients just like Duke Street, Belvidere and other hospitals that would take long term patients , the staffs dedication was second to none to the patients that were in their care I know as my father in-law worked there for 35+ years and proud to say he worked in Foresthall Hospital / the old Barnhill and Stobhill with a lot of great memories we still talk about to this day.

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